Defeat to Villa and a fourth place finish was a true reflection of a team that wasn’t good enough to go up says Bernie Slaven.

Losing in the play-off semi-final may turn out to be a blessing in disguise after a disrupted season that left boss Tony Pulis with a lot of rebuilding work to do adds the Living Legend.

And Bernie also names his player of the season in his weekly look at all things Boro - and it’s not who you think.

Was losing to Villa a blessing in disguise?

Losing to Aston Villa in the play-offs was a true reflection of exactly where Boro were as a team this season.

Tony Pulis got the team organised and played more direct football and got them into the play-offs, which was good given the drift under Garry Monk and the disruption in changing styles.

But in the semi-final, hand on heart, Villa were the better team. They deserved to win. They were more creative in midfield, stronger at the back and sharper up front. Over the two legs Boro barely had a shot while Darren Randolph was the busier keeper.

Maybe it was disappointing to lose in the play-offs but equally maybe it is a blessing in disguise.

We may have got to Wembley and fluked through but it is more likely on form we would have been gubbed.

At least this saves the Teesside public the expense and heartache of another defeat.

Boro paid the price for a disrupted season

Boro have had two managers and two styles. And both managers tried to change the system and style from scratch.

Garry Monk came in and he tried to play a more open, attacking, expansive style of football that was easy on the eye and that is never easy.

If you want to change things quickly it is far easier to get a team playing defensive football. Terry Venables did that. Aitor Karanka did that. Tony Pulis has done that.

To his credit Garry Monk was trying to do the opposite, get a dour team to be more enterprising - and worst still, he was trying to do it with a lot of players who had spent two or three years being drilled by Aitor Karanka.

It didn’t work. Results weren’t great and the football was confused and the fans turned on him - I’ve never known so much vitriol and abuse aimed at a Boro manager so quickly - and Steve Gibson soon made a change.

Middlesbrough's manager Tony Pulis and Birmingham City's Garry Monk

Read More

Then Tony Pulis came in and had to reorganise from scratch again on the hoof, with a new shape, tempo and mentality and using a lot of different players. It was a major upheaval. More chopping and changing.

So I’m not surprised Boro didn’t go up. They have had not one but two major disruptions in tactics and personnel.

The style of play has been disrupted, the selections, the backroom staff, the training methods, everything. Twice.

That’s not easy for a club. It is not easy for the players, for the managers or the fans and it makes it very hard to judge the season as a whole or the players fairly.

Pulis will hope for a massive summer shake-up

I think Tony Pulis would like to really shake his squad up in the summer.

He’s had a really good look at the players now, in training and in matches. He knows where the weaknesses are. He knows what is lacking. He knows exactly what he needs to get the team playing the way he wants.

He's done well with a squad he inherited but he knows and we know - and the players know too - that they don't really tick all the boxes. If Boro want success then then they must help him build a real Tony Pulis team.

And I think, given the chance, he would be ruthless. He’s patched it up as he goes along so far and done OK but to get the team he really wants he might need to change EIGHT players.

That may sound brutal but if he is to get the right kind of players he wants in the key positions then that’s what it might take.

I think he will be looking at both full-back positions to bring in the specialists he wants there.

I think he could rip up the entire midfield to bring in more pace and power and creativity.

Tony Pulis (Image: Doug Moody)

And up front he’s got a headache. He has five strikers on the books and for me there isn’t one he would have personally chosen.

There isn’t one of them with the physique, skills or style to play his way effectively over the course of an entire season.

Between them there is some talent and goals and they have done well in spurts in a patched up team but they are all either too slow or two small to play his way consistently week in, week out..

Read More

That’s nothing personal against those guys. If I was in that squad now even if I'd been scoring playing well and goals I’d expect Pulis to say: “Slaven has to go, he can’t do the job for me.”

That’s what I think he wants. Will he get his way? Well, it will take a lot of wheeler-dealing. Sometimes it is a lot harder to get players out than it is to get them in.

That is a job for the guys behind the scenes but how many of his own players Pulis will decide Boro’s fate next term.

My player of the season

Adama Traore has been brilliant - but for consistency over the season my player of the year is Darren Randolph.

For three months Adama lit up the division. He showed searing pace, great strength and he started to deliver in terms of crosses and assists and goals. He has been exciting to watch.

I’m not taking anything away from the lad, he is a great prospect, but he was patchy when he was given his chances in the first half of the season and he was fairly easily shackled and muted in the play-offs.

For me the best performer week in, week out has been Randolph. He’s a solid shot-stopper, good in the air, he commands his box and when the pressure has been on he has made the big saves to keep Boro in games.

Darren Randolph (Image: Getty Images Europe)

To be fair, there are not many contenders for players who have actually done it over a whole season because of the disruption.

There are some who were strong contenders in the first half of the campaign like Cyrus Christie and Martin Braithwaite who were bombed out for the second half under Pulis and there were guys who were only bit part players under Monk who blossomed under the new boss, like Patrick Bamford who enjoyed a purple patch of goals.

For me the best of the rest was Dani Ayala. Once he came back in under Pulis he was big and strong at the back, almost unbeatable in the air and a real goal threat - he was third top scorer from a standing start at New Year. That incredible.

Read More

My game of the year was the 2-1 win away at Derby. There haven’t been too many really good games to choose from that but I think that was the first time Boro had performed well in every department over the full 90 minutes.

It was first time they had beaten a team in the top six and the first time I thought, ‘you know what, we’ve got a chance here.’

And my goal of the year was George Friend’s thunderbolt at QPR. What a strike! Unbelievable! A rocket.

I don’t think I ever struck a ball anywhere near as good as that. If I did I’d still be watching the clip on a loop now.